Former Stoughton clown is looking for work

Marilyn Lambert, 50, of Stoughton, formerly Bingo the Clown, is among the more than 300,000 people currently unemployed in Massachusetts.

Erin Shannon

BROCKTON – She once went by the name Bingo the Clown at work; now she is looking for employment as Marilyn Mullen Lambert.

Lambert, 50, of Stoughton, is among the more than 300,000 people currently unemployed in Massachusetts.

And she is one of more than 5,000 people so far this year who have sought help seeking work and upgrading skills at the Brockton-based CareerWorks One-Stop Career Center.

Despite signs of economic recovery, more than eight of 10 Massachusetts residents are “concerned” about jobs, according to a new survey by UMass-Dartmouth’s Department of Public Policy. The poll of 1,207 residents was conducted in February and March.

The unemployment rate as a whole for these local communities was 9.1 percent in March.

That was down from last year and from February – but was higher than the state and national averages of 8.2 and 8.8 percent, respectively, for March.

CareerWorks provided services to 5,550 customers as of the end of March, a figure that put the agency ahead of last year, according to Charlie Hickey, CareerWorks manager of employer services.

After losing her job at Caritas Good Samaritan Hospice due to downsizing in December, Lambert turned to CareerWorks in Brockton to help in her job search.

CareerWorks, which opened in 1999, provides assistance to local job hunters. The agency offers workshops on career exploration, interviewing, salary negotiation, resumes, cover letters, networking, career planning and job fairs. It also provides computer classes for those in need of them and computers to use.

Lambert has a varied work history that CareerWorks helped her use to her advantage.

“She is the quintessential person who has reinvented herself over the years,” said Thomas F. Hahesy Jr., an employer services representative at CareerWorks.

Lambert had been an administrative assistant at Caritas and earlier at the WGBH Educational Foundation, where she was also a fundraiser. She has also worked as a substitute teacher, camp counselor and, of course, as Bingo the Clown.

Bingo started before Lambert began attending Stonehill College in Easton. She had applied to be a waitress at an eatery and was told there were no waitress jobs, but there was an opening as a clown.

Lambert had a background in theater, being in both high school and college plays, and was good with children. So she gave it a try – and it worked.

“It came upon me as an opportunity at the time, and it blossomed and I had a new identity,” said Lambert.

In 1983, Lambert graduated from Stonehill College with a degree in early elementary education.

From 1979 to 2001, Lambert traveled around the country as Bingo until a fire in her apartment ruined most of her Bingo essentials.

“That’s when I decided it was time to be done with Bingo,” she said.

Now she is looking for a job as an administrative assistant, and she brings to her job search some valuable skills learned in clowning, such as an outgoing personality and an ability to relate well to adults and children, Hickey said.

She took CareerWorks’ Mission Employment class taught by Hahesy. Mission Employment is an intense three-day program that combines all the workshops that CareerWorks offers.

“They look at the skills you have and all the different jobs you could go into, and they let you reinvent yourself,” said Lambert.

CareerWorks sees people of all backgrounds looking for new careers or to upgrade their skills, from blue-collar workers to college graduates, those who don’t know how to use a computer to those who are tech-savvy.

“Everyone has their own story to tell,” said Hahesy. “It’s just about taking the skills they have developed over the years and using them.”

CareerWorks, 34 School St., Brockton, can be reached at 508-513-3400, or on the Web at http://www.careerworks.org/